The Journal of the Two Sisters review! · 6:04pm Oct 12th, 2014
Here’s the sequel to the Official Guidebook, the in-universe journal. Well, here we go!
Our first entry is rather eye opening. It seems to skip entirely how Celestia and Luna became Alicorns or if they were born that way. They were simply approached by Star Swirl and the three founders with the proclamation that they be the rulers, since they will look upon the three tribes without bias.
Luna also offers a pre-coronation entry. She tries the Royal We, but gives up because she thinks it sounds silly.
Both these entries show them very much like Twilight when she became princess: nervous and unsure. I like seeing the pair like this, given how little development they get in the show.
There’s a shorter entry for the coronation, in which Star Swirl and five Unicorns lower the sun, showing the duty still isn’t theirs. Luna is simply a one sentence entry with several doodles.
Celestia reveals two biggies: Alicorns simple age at a slower rate and are not immortal, and that they are still blank flanks even at their age. They vow to get their cutie marks soon.
Luna’s entry reveals that Everfree is not the result of Celestia and Luna’s battles as I thought, but it was always like that. Luna thinks they should build there in order to have a place to be away from everypony. I kind of assumed the leaders of Equestria would need to be on hand at all times, but whatever.
Celestia has a more practical reason: because they find the Tree of Harmony there, which is a legend even in this time.
The next two entries prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the two sisters are complete dorks: Luna gets excited about building traps, Celie about a secret room in the library. Guess that’s where Twilight gets it from.
The next entry is the longest so far, detailing a run-in the workers have with a manticore and a reminder why building in the middle of a forest is stupid. Luna writes that she learned compassion. Yay, life lessons!
Luna can apparently talk to animals, and uses it to finish the castle faster. Then they play hide and seek.
Then, as it turns out, Princess Platinum didn’t lead the Unicorns, her father King Bullion did. And she apparently didn’t lose her ego. She and Luna end up not seeing eye to eye, and Luna pulls a prank on her. She immediately regrets it, but it seems to make her lose her ego, so alls well that ends well. This leads to the castle being decorated and the Equestrian flag being made.
The next chapter is more pranks against Clover, Pansy, and Cookie. Other than that, Celestia’s meeting with them seems to go well. Then Luna tries hide-n-seek with Chancellor Puddinghead. She loses, because Puddinghead is smarter than she lets on.
In the following entry, Star Swirl shows the sisters his library. Two things of note: first, the Alicorn Amulet is known, even this early. Second... Celestia talks about Alicorns that there are several of them, enough to have their own research in magic. I’m really hoping we get clarity on that. Star Swirl both talks about his time travel spells and asks Luna for help with another.
Okay, this next chapter confuses me. Luna checks an area that Melvin the Manticore won’t enter and finds Zebras living there. Apparently they come from Everfree... how does that work?
It turns out that the spell Star Swirl wants to try is moving the stars, but they start by moving the moon. And Star Swirl apparently masters his time travel spell.
Commander Hurricane was apparently a boy. This information comes just as the Griffons declare war over territory disputes. It ends without bloodshed, thanks to Melvin cluing them in on a few griffon weaknesses.
Then we get a long bit with this information: the Crystal Empire, ruled by a Princess Amore, a Unicorn with the same, or at least a similar, cutie mark to Cadance. What’s there connection? I don’t know, the book ever clarifies. The pair work to get the Crystal Heart back from a dragon. This time, they’re more aggressive. I guess this is to show there’s a time for diplomacy and a time for war.
The next point has the Unicorns running out of magic, and Celestia and Luna needing to step up. They do (duh), and get their cutie marks (double duh), and realize they are the same as two symbols on the tree. They wonder about the third, and Star Swirl clearly knows something. Maybe we’ll see him in season five?
And that’s where it ends.
Then we get the entries the characters wrote during season four. It even has the right parts highlighted from the season finale. It’s mostly that, except for a few rambling entries from Pinkie Pie and a few short ones from Twilight.
It doesn’t fix Bats!
Well, this was a disappointment that brought up more questions than it answered. Still, I’ll look forward to the season five guide.
Next time: Friends Forever #9
This pleases T.D., as it fits surprisingly well with his fanon.
Fairly sure the Everfree forbidden area was merely a portal to the Zebra lands, otherwise zebras would be more common around Ponyville. They do imply that somewhat. Also the book did not break my batpony headcanon, so I'm good.
Yeah, I don't consider this book canon at all. It muddies the water really badly. I have a bug blog post about it and some other stuff from a while back called "dang it star swirl!"
Very little of this really gels with established canon.
Not to say it contradicts anything, but it's almost all just needless filler that only muddies the waters of canon ancient Equestria to an incomprehensible point. Heck, even my story Malefic Bonds does a better job of logically connecting the dots in a way that makes sense, and still has room for unimportant shenanigans between the princesses and their closest acquaintances.
2528348
Agreed. In particular the introduction of an ancient Alicorn Tribe when the show (and thhe Crystal Heart Spell book) establishes alicornhood as a result of a transformation rather than an inborn thing.
I'd like to point out that despite apparently being raised amongst them, Celestia only refers to the other alicorns as "the Alicorns". They appear to little to no personal attachment and not considering herself and Luna to be part of that group. That struck me as really odd.
On the positive side, I approve of spelling the dimunitive of Celestia "Celie" and Celestia and Luna's immortality seemingly having something to do with the Tree is interesting. Darth didn't bring that up, but raising the Sun/Moon sets back the clock a bit every time they do that.
2528546 I think it would've been better to just say that Star Swirl discovered the astral realm shown in MMC during his studies, and somehow Celestia and Luna managed to use whatever he found out about it to ascend themselves, thereby giving them the power to help Equestria to recover after Discord's defeat.
The idea that the Tree of Harmony is somehow responsible for their immortality is definitely interesting, but if that's the case, than it would've had to have given them it sometime prior to their acquisition of the Elements, and without them knowing about it before then.
2528627 Clarification: their connection to the Tree is that their Cute Marks are engraved on the Tree, and exercising the special talents those marks represent reverses their aging. Not their having used the Elements - that part is not in the Journal and the flashback potion showed quite clearly that the sisters never had the sort of connection with the Elements the Mane 6 do.
Now the Mane 6's marks are also on the Tree, not engraved but in the from of the Elements. And the girls have been imbued with Element power.
2528655 I never said anything about the Elements being responsible for their immortality.
But yeah, thanks for clarifying that. It's definitely interesting, but, I'm pretty sure exercising those talents isn't the only method of achieving immortality. After all, Discord, Tirek, and Sombra are incredibly long-lived, and they don't have that kind of power.
So many questions left unanswered!
Indeed. Hasbro just isn't good at world building for this show, at least not without consulating Lauren Faust firt. Say what you will about Lauren's writing abilites, but she's definitely good at expanding the lore of her shows and making them interesting.
And did you really think the entries would "fix" the episodes they were based on? The only entries we didn't see in the show were the ones in "Pinkie Pride", "Maud Pie" and "Trade Ya".